I thought this would just be sort of a fun little thread. What do you think is the least daily cost that you could live in on Kunming, excluding rent and utilities? I think that ever a foreigner could live on 10 kuai a day, and even live well by world standards. What do you think?

If you live like a poor local, cook your own food and eat rice, cheapest seasonal fruit and veg, no oil, no meat, small meals, no beer. Then yes, you could do it on 10 kuai a day.

But why?

I don't think you can eat healthy on 10 kuai a day. I think it's good to be frugal, but not to the point where you're sacrificing your health needs.

abcdabcd what if you ate rice, and a couple of healthy vegetables from a fresh market?

tommann, your diet is completely void of protein! you'll feel tired most of the day and you'll die before your time. so at the very least, you need to add some eggs to that list.

It is certainly a recipe for being undernourished (pun intended), like so many locals. But useful in the short term to lose weight.

10 kuai is a bit low, but if you eat in the cheapest restaurants, say a bowl of noodles for lunch and a nice, big gaifan for dinner, you could easily get buy on 20 kuai per day, though I would splurge and buy a bottle of coke or a cup of coffe and some snack, and make sure to only use buses, never cabs, 25 kuai a day wouldn't be a problem.

My wife's sister is totally disabled and gets a government allowance that is about 15 RMB per day. It's not enough to live on! We have to buy her extra food and pay all her utilities and medication.

In fairness to the OP, the sum mentioned was 'excluding rent or utilities'

If you want to live as cheap as possible, don't eat at restaurants, even cheap ones. If you cook all your food, you can eat healthily for 15 a day (rice, noodles, eggs, vegetables, fruit), then pick a couple of days a week to eat meat for 25 a day.

But if you're a foreigner why not teach English a few hours a week and enjoy a much nicer lifestyle?